Red Sox drop the ball

Controversial call key play as Tigers win series

Scott LauberMonday, June 24, 2013

Credit: AP

POINT OF CONTENTION: Red Sox right fielder Daniel Nava appeared to have the ball in his glove before dropping it after trying to pull it out and make a throw on a fly ball by Detroit’s Avisail Garcia in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game. The umpire ruled he did not make the catch.

DETROIT — Given the chance to split a four-game series on the road against the defending American League champions, the Red Sox dropped the ball.

Well, sort of.

The way right fielder Daniel Nava saw it, the eighth inning of a tie game against the Tigers opened with him making a basket catch on Avisail Garcia’s fly ball and maintaining control of the ball before fumbling it on the transfer from his glove to his left hand. No big deal, Nava said, and certainly nothing that would negate the catch.

But second base umpire Mike DiMuro took a different view, ruling that Nava never got the ball into his throwing hand. Nava, who replaced injured Shane Victorino one inning earlier, was charged with an error, Garcia was granted second base, and the Tigers went on to score three runs in a 7-5 victory, the Red Sox’ fourth loss in five games.

“I made the catch,” said Nava, who pleaded his case to DiMuro. “I know I made the catch.”

John Farrell wasn’t as diplomatic. After earning his first ejection as Red Sox manager for arguing with DiMuro, Farrell repeatedly referred to the controversial play as a “blown call” and wondered why first base umpire Scott Barry wasn’t in a better position to make the call.

“Clearly, the call was missed,” Farrell said. “He caught it. Went to transfer to his throwing hand, dropped it at that point. It wasn’t like it was an instantaneous movement. He caught it in front of him, took it to his left hip to naturally throw the ball back in.”

Speaking on behalf of DiMuro, crew chief Ted Barrett defended the call, explaining that a catch isn’t a catch unless the outfielder has “complete control and voluntary release.” He also said DiMuro has jurisdiction to make the call over Barry when there aren’t runners on base.

“When he flipped the ball out of his glove, he never got it into his hand,” Barrett said. “That’s not voluntary release. There was no voluntary release and no catch.”

Regardless, there were other reasons the Red Sox lost, and Farrell knows it.

Start with a five-inning start from Felix Doubront, whose early exit meant a shorthanded (Franklin Morales was unavailable due to shoulder discomfort) and taxed bullpen needed to record the final 12 outs. Farrell turned to embattled ex-closer Andrew Bailey with a one-run lead in the seventh inning, and Bailey promptly allowed two singles and the tying run.

The Tigers’ seventh-inning rally was aided, too, by a failed opportunity to record a double play. After Austin Jackson’s leadoff single against Bailey, Torii Hunter hit a knuckling liner to Dustin Pedroia, who threw to first. If first baseman Mike Napoli had tagged the frozen Jackson before stepping on the base, it would’ve been a double play.

Napoli did the opposite.

“It was just kind of weird,” Pedroia said. “Shoot, I’ve never seen one of those in my life.”

Even then, the Sox could’ve escape the inning with a lead. Lefty reliever Andrew Miller struck out Victor Martinez with the bases loaded, then got two strikes on Jhonny Peralta before hitting him to force in the tying run.

“I just kind of yanked that ball,” Miller said. “It stinks. You do all that hard work and get ahead 0-2 and you can’t execute a pitch. It’s pretty disappointing.”

And then, there was the fallout from Nava’s error. Miller made a throwing error on Bryan Holaday’s sacrifice bunt and walked Jackson before reliever Alex Wilson gave up Hunter’s tie-breaking sacrifice fly and lefty Craig Breslow allowed a two-run single to Prince Fielder.

“Defensively, we made a couple miscues that led to, I think, four runs,” Farrell said. “And we’ve typically been a very solid and sound defensive team.”

In losing three games to the Tigers, the Red Sox easily could’ve won three, after getting walked off Thursday night and self-destructing yesterday. But that was little consolation.

“(The Tigers) are a good team,” Farrell said. “I feel like we can compete with anyone.”